Wow. Just for fun, i'm gonna reply to this one. Even tho i am
completely a roadie, and everything I own now is fitted to a T, I
believe there is a place for dept store mass production machines.
Caveat - they are mostly wear-em-out-and-throw-em-away. Don't worry
about Huffy or Schwinn, go for price. Don't get fancy shocks. Don't do
stunts on it. Avoid potholes and riding off curbs. Make sure it fits,
and the instant the saddle gets uncomfortable, replace it with a better
one. Experiment with saddles. If your commute is 5 miles, maybe you'll
never have a problem.

When I was a child my parents bought me a few various "English"
3-speeds. I didn't like em and always wanted what the other kids had -
Sting-Rays. The first bike I had I considered to be mine I stole from
my sister - she had moved out of the house and left it. That was a
humongously heavy Schwinn girls cruiser - but it had a basket, and I
had a newspaper route that I had to deliver to make money, and there
was no other bike in the house at the time. My second bike I got after
high school, and once again used to commute to work - it was a dept
store cheapo 10-speed, and it saw a couple of hard summers of commuting
to work, and even some non-summer commutes. The bike held up long
enough, and served its purpose. At that time I had no spare parts bin
to rebuild a used bike, and didn't have the knowledge or desire to do
so either. It worked, I worked, and we got along just fine. When the
seat stay (part of the frame) broke away from the rest of the frame, my
kid brother braised it back, and 'inherited' the bike that way. Overall
miles, it didn't go that far, but it went far enough, and the price was
right.

Knobbies vs. slicks? Unless you're doing sloppy dirt, do the slicks.
The skinniest lightest tire that will give you a ride without going
flat or sinking into your "road" surface is a good way to think about
it. Riding roads in Africa or Mongolia? Get fat thick tires. Not going
there? hmmm.

You know, Ron H doesn't get a lot of respect around here, but on this
topic I agree with him.

Have a great day;
Mark